Hon Inn Myo
by StarCatBurning
Summary: Sometimes getting washed up half-dead on an island is perhaps not all bad, as Jason finds out. Updated 2 Nov, making it a chapter story for ease of reading and story flow.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**This is something I just had to write before I exploded, and well, here it is. Do tell me what you think of it!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything but the Tamaranian lingo. All credits to DC for inventing RHatO, because it is just that awesome.**

**This is what issue #6, plus some of #0, would have looked like in words, plus some of my own imagination. Enjoy!**

**Edit, 2/11/2012: Thanks to GlOmP3R for giving me the suggestion that this should become a chapter story. Yes, it ****_is _****too long to be a oneshot. Thanks GlOmP3R!**

* * *

Hon Inn Myo

**Jason**

When Jason Todd woke up, he didn't expect to be stark naked.

He didn't expect the bowl of steaming soup on the table next to his makeshift bed.

And he certainly didn't expect to be alive.

His head throbbed like a thousand dwarves were trying to force their way out of his head with pickaxes, and his whole body ached. His lungs burned, and it was an effort to sit up. He didn't try to. He risked moving his arm, though it was agony, but found something attached to his arm, restraining him. A tube. He frowned, confounded.

"Wha- where?" An arm - an arm with skin so orange it almost glowed gold, swam into his vision. The hand flipped a switch on the weird, flickering device that was attached to the tube.

"_Di'urma. _Hush."

And Jason fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2: Kori

**Kori**

... So long. So long without human contact that I had forgotten I was on Earth. That perhaps this inferior substitute for my homeworld would suffice as a place, a sanctuary to live out the remainder of my days. That, perhaps, I was just alone. Alone as the rest of them.

I lived a simple life, surviving on a diet of fruits and berries found on the tropical island which was my home. I was a prisoner - though this island was no prison. It was true: my ship had crashed here, but I was a creature of flight, and could leave if I so wished. But I did not. Perhaps it was too painful to leave - I knew that my previous prescence on Earth had been barely accepted, and I knew that I would possibly not be tolerated further. And perhaps, out of the thorn in my own heart, I remained. I had been hurt before, a long time ago, in the company of humans, and desperate to heal my wounds I sought refuge in solitude.

So it was, to my utter surprise, that one day a large... a _submarine_, that was what it was known as to humans - surfaced briefly just off the coast of the island. I was interested, but I did not intrude. Ships sometimes passed by, but never stopping, and never coming this near. Let the humans sort themselves out - they and their petty arguments.

However, this one was... different. It sank back beneath the waves, and I thought I had seen the last of it, and was about to head back to foraging for fruits, but suddenly, there was a gigantic explosion, one that seemed to shake the earth to its core. A gigantic plume of water, with an underlying current of red fire bubbling up from beneath it, shot from the still sea like the serrated tongue of a _minyat._

A few pieces of black shrapnel rained from the sky, falling back onto the mirrored surface of the water. All the people aboard that ship must be dead, I thought, and returned to my duties, the jungle swallowing me. I thought no more of what had happened until later that evening.

As I returned to the beach to peruse the trees for any more coconuts, I saw a large, dark shape sprawled over the dark red sand, like a piece of glowing coal in a fireplace, the waves breaking over it, shimmering and glinting. I stepped cautiously towards it, for fear that it might suddenly rise and attack, fire ready in hand to strike it down should it attempt to do so, but as I neared I realised it was still, perhaps dead, for it did not move. I reached its side, and, upon closer inspection, realised it was clearly male.

He was lying facedown, his clothes ragged and torn, half his head obscured by a red metal mask, and the other half sprouted a shock of dark hair, matted with salt and damp with the retreating tide. I turned him over, removing his broken mask. My breath hitched in my throat.

A sudden rush, a flow of unbidden memories.

"..."

"_'I'chard?_"

The dark hair - the eyes, when I opened the lids - blue, just like a jay's feathers. Just... just like _his._ On a bright morning, staring into mine, drowsy with the sleep yet to be cleared from them.

_"I... I love you, Kory."_

_"And I too..."_

... Could not. I would not bring myself to remember his name. He was just another faded memory, faded like the hem of my dress. He should be gone. But somehow... he remained.

I checked the stranger's pulse, and found it weak but present. He was still alive, though not breathing, but would surely die if left unattended. Should I save him? Rescue a human, whose kind had scarred my heart, who did not want me here-

His eyes. They reminded me so much of _his_ that I had to. Felt compelled to. I pushed down on his chest, approximately where his lungs were, and a stream of water surged from between his lips, pouring out onto the damp sand, slithering beneath the wet grains. I repeated the process until with a start, he coughed, and jerked back to life. Good. He was breathing, though it was laboured, for quite a number of his ribs were broken. I dragged his body up from the beach, then hefted him over my shoulder and carried him all the way up to a small hut, a short ways off from the mothership. I had built it with my own two hands, and sometimes liked to lie on the bed there, watching the sunset as I had once watched the sunrise. There had once been another body, close to mine, playing with my hair, stroking it, whispering incomprehensible nothings into my ears. Loving me. And yet, I was utterly alone.

I laid him down on the bed, removing his clothes, placing them out to dry beside him. Among his possessions, of which there were few, he had the metal weapon called a gun, and that aroused my suspicions. This man must be inclined to violence, for my previous acquaintance had never carried one. His arm was broken, which I could clearly tell - it lolled at an angle strange with respect to the rest of his body, and in my previous years on this earth I had observed that humans, being quite fragile, tended to break rather easily. I arranged it atop of him, holding it in place with a simple cast of leaves and vines, then covering what I deduced to be his intimate areas with more brush. Observing him closely, he seemed to have the well- built physique that my previous acquaintance possessed, and, save from a few slight features that distinguished him from _him_ - the set of the jaw, the build of the chest - they could have been the same person. However, until the stranger woke and I determined whether he was friend or foe, I should not allow my emotions to take control yet. It was one of the painful but valuable lessons that I had learnt on Earth - that it was, simply put, not Tamaran.

Humans took care of things with their cold logic first.

Over the next few days I cared for my patient, replacing his makeshift bandages with proper cloth ones that I had found upon the mothership, and feeding him. He was still unconscious, but his pulse was stronger, and his breathing steady. His ribs had healed with the help of a salve that I had found in the medical bay aboard the mothership. Angry red sores had appeared where I had applied the salve, but it did not seem to kill him, which I deduced should be all right.

And then on the eighth day, he awoke.

"How is the patient - conscious yet?" Perhaps I felt a little foolish, talking to someone who could not hear me, but I did so anyway. It was comforting in a strange sense, talking to this stranger at my sunsets, who was naked, unconscious - I did not know him, and yet I was caring for him. It seemed almost gratifying to know that by my own care, he was slowly recovering. The last time I had had a similar experience was caring for a _blythda _that had fallen in the palace garden and injured its wing. I had slowly nursed it to health with the help of Galfore, but one day I had been careless, and left the door open. The only parts I found that remained of it were its bright blue feathers.

I had cried for hours, then under the guidance of my beloved _k'norfka,_ burned it with my own flame and sang its praises to _X'hal. _Perhaps, Galfore had told me, it would be much better off with the goddess than with me.

I examined my patient, who was still motionless on the bed. The memories were threatening to jump out at me any moment, deep as I had buried them. Who was he?

Familiar, but... In another time, perhaps...?

_"Morning, beautiful..." That wonderful, knowing smirk on his lips that made the world seem all right again..._

No. Not him. I risked reaching down, my fingers brushing his hair - and that was when he sat up. In his hands was the gun.


	3. Chapter 3: Jason

**Jason**

"Where are my pants? I knew if I played dead long enough you'd try-" Whoa. Whoa. Hot lady alert. Brain buzzing.

"Ohhhh... My head... How did I get here? And where are my pants?" Ouch. One moment ago I was dreaming. Dreaming of things. The Joker. Ducra. No time for that now.

"Where are my _pants_?" My gun was at her throat. _Move, and I won't hesitate to blow you up. _She raised one golden hand. I couldn't help but notice that her nails were painted purple. And that her eyes were green. Just green. No pupils or anything. Weird.

"Hush. You have been injured. You're only exhausting yourself." She spoke in a lilting, foreign accent - I couldn't tell where from - and boy, was she hot. Like angel-from-heaven hot. Was I dead?

"Maybe you're..." There was a slight hiss, a wisp of smoke, and an acrid scent. I looked down. The barrel of my gun had burned red, and was oozing slowly downwards. Ok, definitely weird. Or dead.

"Lady, you just melted my gun... How-?"

"I understand you are confused, but... rest. Please."

You couldn't say no to that.

...

_There was a moon. Its glaring spotlight rained silver in shafts and bombarded Gotham with arrows of light, like the gods had decided she was some kind of giant target board. The air was chill, and every shadow looked like Killer Croc or Two-Face or even Bane, though my mind told me that he couldn't be there - he wouldn't fit._

_"I'm listening, Dick."_

_"Patience isn't just a virtue, Jason. It can save your life. You wait for the right moment, but at the same time it's important that you don't hesitate..."_

_I tuned out while he droned on. Usually he wouldn't go on for much longer, and usually I'd listen, but tonight, I was jumpy. Tonight, the hunt was running through my veins._

_Tonight, I was different._

_"Enough already!" I could see the shock in his face, even through the cloth of his mask. I almost never spoke to him like that._

_"...I don't need to be taught how to do my job by the guy who left me to fill in his cape! And besides, Batman picked me... not you."_

_I could see that he tried, tried to haphazardly stitch the edges together. "Dude, relax. This isn't a competition."_

_Had to tell him. Had to make him understand that I wasn't a little _kid_ anymore. That in the years he was gone, I had grown up. Time to show him that I was strong, independent. Time to show him the real me._

_I leapt off the edge of the building, throwing my cape up in his face. "Of course it is, Grayson. Life is a competition."_

_I scowled as I continued my journey down, though I knew he couldn't see. Not that it mattered, anyway. Who was he to tell me anything? He was the one who had run off on his own to join the Titans. Who'd left me alone to fend for myself. And then, out of the blue, he'd returned. Well, I was going to show him that I was better now. The new and improved Jason Todd._

_I could handle this. And didn't he know it._

_"What an ass."_

_"What a little - uggh."_

_..._

My head jerked, and I snapped awake. My entire body was still suffused with pain, but it didn't hurt that much now.

I was still starkers.

And alone.

Getting up, (which took a considerable effort), I struggled free of the bandages restraining my arms and tossed them. Then I walked out into the jungle. The calls of birds brushed past my ears, painted against my skull by the tips of damp ferns and leaves, glittering in what sunlight filtered through the morning canopy.

"Hello? Orange chick? Anybody?"

I peeled back another frond, and-

"Whoa."

The sight that rammed itself firmly into my eyes was one I'd never forget. A gigantic... ship lay sprawled across my entire field of vision, glinting silver in the sun. Trees twined themselves around it; plants sprouted from every crack in its hull. A little stream bubbled by its side, flanking it. I stared, awestruck, until a movement alerted me to another presence making its way down a flight of steps on the ship.

It was Orange Chick, and was she pretty. Owing to my being passed out before I could get a complete look at her, I hadn't seen her properly till now, but at this moment she was wearing a white, ragged dress that complimented her skin tone perfectly (and that cleavage!) Her eyes flashed emerald in the sun, set into her face like a pair of gems, and her legs were long, slender, and seemed to go on forever.

"Oh, you're awake. Good."

I think I drooled. Slightly.

I didn't come to my short-circuited senses until she had reached my side. _Don't be an idiot, Jason. You've done this plenty before._

"Please, come inside." She gestured for me to enter.

"I am Princess Koriand'r from the planet Tamaran. Welcome to my home."

My brain fizzed out. _Princess?_

"Um, Todd," I said, knowing without a hint of uncertainty that I sounded stupid.

"Jason Todd."


	4. Chapter 4: Kori

**Kori**

I led him through the ship. He seemed excited - constantly looking around and babbling so fast in his native tongue that I almost could not keep up.

"I don't mean to be impolite, but..." He certainly sounded like _him_, and secretly I wondered if they were possibly related.

"... And unless you decorate in 'Early American Shipwreck,' I'm assuming this place crashed to Earth without anyone ever knowing about it." Yes. Definitely related.

"What's the power source? How long has it been here? Does it give off radiation? Is it self-adapting technology?" I stopped, suddenly. To tell him that would be to tell him everything. Everything that had happened. And I could not.

"It's - it's good that you're getting your strength back." I parried his next volley of questions, and he seemed to understand my subtle move.

"I'm talking too much? I've just never seen an alien before - orange or otherwise."

"And after so long in solitude, I've forgotten how obnoxious humans can be." I twisted my lips downwards into a scowl, testing his reaction.

He relented immediately, which I thought put him on my neutral list - for the time being. "I'm sorry."

I smiled again, to show him that I accepted his apology. "You need to dress. There is some male clothing here, if you'd like. They appear to be the correct size."

Whatever it was, I didn't expect his reaction.


	5. Chapter 5: Jason

**Jason**

"Wha- Nightwing?"

_"Jason..."_

_"... You - you - left me! With the Joker! You failed, Batman! You failed_ me_!_" _Tears leaked from the edge of my mask as I stared down at the man, the man whom I had once loved as a father, the man who had rescued me from the brink of the alleys - the same one who had give me up for dead. Abandoned me. Watched me go up in flames._

_My hand shook as I took off my mask, levelling the gun at his face. He looked worn out. He looked helpless._

_He looked... _old_._

_"It'd be so easy to kill you..." My finger tightened on the trigger. I wanted to see him die, the man who didn't care whether_ I_ lived or died. Wanted to be there, wanted to be the one to see the light go out in his eyes._

_But I hesitated._

_"NO!"_

_Pain, jarring pain, exploded in my cheekbone. Nightwing. I was knocked to the ground, my gun and mask knocked out of my hands. Paralysed, I tried to make the pain go away, but it wouldn't stop. And I couldn't move._

_"I'm sorry, Jay," he whispered, turning me over, and propping me up against the wall while I groaned, red spots dancing at the edge of my vision._

_"... Not tonight." When I looked up, both were gone._

How... how did she have his clothes? Was it some kind of dream? Some sick, twisted nightmare?

"Is this some kind of joke, lady? How do you have Nightwing's suit - here? Playing a sick game of dress-up isn't going to help you deal with whatever is going on in that bright orange head of yours, y'know?"


	6. Chapter 6: Kori

**Kori**

He was right. Maybe I shouldn't have tried. Comparing him to _him_ - it was a mistake. But that meant, if he showed any signs of recognition, they must've known each other. And pretty well too, by the looks of it. _He _had hurt Jason, just as _he_ had hurt me. I could tell from the pain and shock in his eyes.

... So what do you know - perhaps they_ were_ related, after all...

But I put on my 'naive alien' face, another trick I'd learnt over the years.

"Excuse me? How can clothes do you harm? You are not the man who once wore these, and... I'm aware that if I ever needed anything beyond myself to validate my existence, then I would already be giving away my power to be self-defining."

Very aware. Very, very aware. I didn't need_ him_ - or his clothes - to survive. I didn't even know why I had kept them - just that I had. Perhaps it was a way to remember _him_ by. If I had kept these clothes, I had kept them for a reason. What it was I might not know anymore, but they were precious. And if I had forced myself to forget, then the reason must not be important. Or it was very important. Either way, it was gone now, swept into the hearth with all my other broken memories.

The scent - _his_ scent - was the only way to reinvoke what memories I had left of him. What memories that mattered.

_"What's the move, boss?"_

_"Fall back, Arsenal! His powers are about to bring the place down!" He turned towards me, held out his hand. "C'mon, follow me." I took it, admiring its strength and the calm it brought, one that washed over me like a silent tide._

_"Of course!" We ran out from the fire together, and not a moment too soon. The whole building caved in, rubble raining down. When the dust had cleared, I saw the full extent of the damage - flames licked at the bent pieces of steel and concrete. If we had been in there when it collapsed, we might have lost their lives. I turned to him and enveloped him in a bear hug._

_"Ow! Owowowow... Star, you're crushing me..." He was smiling, though._

_I put him down. Then I kissed him, full on the lips, instead. I took a moment to enjoy his surprise. He sucked in a breath, but couldn't do anything otherwise, since his mouth was pretty occupied at the moment. It took him twenty-seven and a half seconds to remember how to breathe._

_Ah._

_The games we played._

…

"His name... _escapes me_," I said. It was the best way to put it without lying. "I will remember him when I see him again, but…" For now, memories were all I had to go on, until I could bring myself to accept the pain and the loss.

"One word of advice, Jason Todd. Live in the present. Do not be burdened by your tumultuous past, whatever it may concern."


	7. Chapter 7: Jason

**Jason**

Maybe I was late to realise it, but Kori was right. That I had seen all this awesome stuff, and all I could think of was how to use it to hurt people.

_How far have I fallen from Ducra's teachings?_

I never knew she knew Dick, nor that she loved him almost intently as I hated him. He was just Bruce Junior, another guy rushing into the idealistic world of the Bat. And he had stopped me from killing Bruce.

Then I thought about it, and then I realised that maybe I hadn't wanted to kill Bruce. That maybe he had just stopped me from making a grave misjudgement. Because Bruce... Bruce had made me who I was. I wouldn't be here, if not for him. I might've died on the streets. I might've become a junkie, like Roy Harper, the god-knows-where sidekick of Green Arrow. But instead he pulled me away from all that. And to tell the truth...

Had I not been overwhelmed by... let's just put it at 'sentiments', had I been a little slower in taking that plane to the Middle East, had I just taken five seconds longer embracing my mom... He would've saved me from the Joker, too.

From myself.

I walked out into the moonlit night. Kori was there, standing barefoot (and almost bare everywhere else, too) in the surf, watching the moon, her arms crossed. I went over.

"Kori, sorry to bother you, but you and I need to talk. There is something you need to know about me-"

She kissed me.

My brain went blank for a short while until my senses came back and I pushed her away.

"What the _hell_?"

She didn't look apologetic at all. "It is one of the ways my people assimilate language, knowledge... You said you wanted to talk, I only assumed..."


	8. Chapter 8: Kori

**Kori**

I lied.

I was testing his reaction again, and it seemed he reacted in pretty much the same way that _he _had. Except for the swearing, of course.

"And there is something you need to know about me," I replied, nonchalantly. "About someone. That perhaps you may know. There is a lot that I have to say. but let's start somewhere, shall we? ...It began with a kiss..."

_...He had proposed to me once. I had accepted. But at that time, anti-alien sentiments were rushing into their prime, and I had feared that he was rushing into marriage. It had failed, right when it was about to come true. My dream, dashed into pieces by the corrupted soul of my friend - one who was like a sister to me. I agree - our marriage was a little rushed - but that did not diminish my love for him at all._

I gazed at him intently, hoping he got the message.

_And yet I could not blame her. It was not her fault._

_I spent some time away from _him_ and the rest of my friends, working with a man - Buddy Baker. Yes, his name I retained. I thought all was well, when I discovered the fates are unkind. Perhaps, as the humans say, the lightning does strike the same person from time to time. But my friends were endangered. I had to help._

_I returned, amputating my sorrows._

_Perhaps I should not have returned. Because when I did, it was to pursue the sons of the demon Trigon. The demon's child made me... forget. And... remember... at the same time. Forgetting my pain. Balming myself in lust, and want, and remembering the times we loved each other. Fooling myself into thinking I..._ we -_ could be the same again. And it failed. It was not real. It could never be real, because he loved another woman._

_It was not my place to interfere, as I was a guest. A guest, on Earth. Had I been on Tamaran I would have challenged Barbara, then ripped out her throat. But Barbara and I were friends. Had been friends. But when I saw her with him, I knew he was clearly smitten._

_And I hated him for turning me against her._

_Hated myself for falling for him in the first place._

_When he proposed to her, it was the last straw._

_I should've known this was coming._

_"…Do you love me? In a way that needs no promises? In a way that means forever?"_

_"…"_

_"…No."_

_It was all I needed to hear._

_I kissed him, my final goodbye._

_Then I left._

_The following weeks had been a case of two hells turned over. I went to a therapist. I blew up a wall._

_And then one day I packed, having received a message from Komand'r. My beautiful dear sister, whom I had not heard from in years. Of course I packed, and embarked for Tamaran – for good. She had something important to tell me, she said. Something that needed to be conferred face to face, no secrets. I understood. I knew what she meant. We had not seen each other in a long time. Things had probably changed on homeworld. Memories from the grave, back to haunt us. And I agreed, to what was to be done. Fallen into a slump of depression, I did not care whether I lived or died. And this plan - at least if I died my sacrifice would not have been in vain._

_But as I passed through the hallways of Titans' Tower, something caught my eye. A door, ajar. I walked through, and found it was our hideout – a place where we'd gone, whenever we needed any privacy, or a place to be alone – to sob into each other's shoulders. It had also been the place where I had helped him into his new Nightwing suit (well, it had been new at the time) and it was where all his old Robin stuff was._

_"He won't miss this." I took it all._

_Tamaranians… are a unique people. Scent is one of our strongest senses. My people were descended from felines, so perhaps it comes as no surprise that I share much similarities with Earth cats, and can, to some degree, communicate with them._

_I sang my sorrows to a pack of cats, at midnight, in the old City Square. It was magical… more than magical. The moon shone silver on our golden pelts, and the wind rained whispers in our ears. Kin. I had found a real family._

_I explained, in simple terms, where I was going, and a pretty maiden volunteered to come along. She could not have been more than 3 years of age, yet the readiness in her beautiful amber eyes conveyed such deep understanding and sadness, such hopelessness and despair that I knew she was serious. She looked lost, even - a little like myself. I warned her that there would be dangers, horrors unspeakable, but she insisted. Good. I would probably need a companion for what I was going to go through. What we would not come back from. It would be the last I saw of Earth._

_We set off, me packing his clothes into a spare compartment in my bag, scenting my olfactory senses with each one, lodging the memory associated with it firm into my head. As long as I had the scents in my head, I would never forget these memories, even through all the horrors I would face._

_Never forget how much he had changed._

_I took the flight back to my island, back to where my mothership was. It had crashed here, many years ago, upon my arrival on Earth, and I thought there would be no reason to even to visit it again, but against all odds, here I was, the kitten strolling at my feet. I had taken to calling her _Kri'shah_ - 'Amber' in my native tongue, a growl followed by a high bark in hers._

_She pounced upon the grey rocks that curved up into a rocky cliff on the side of the island opposite the smooth, golden beaches. It was late night, and the huge full moon loomed like a _g'lleon_ above the island, tossed in the stormy waters of the clouds. A fierce wind whipped up my hair, and I knew a storm was brewing. A big one too, by the looks of it. We scaled the beach, and after much prying I managed to open the doors of the mothership. There was a hissing sound as the vacuum dispersed, and I walked in._

_It had been years since I had returned, so I was doubtful that the mothership would be in excellent condition, but the vacuum had done its job. I stowed away my meagre belongings in a few storage compartments, then after a few attempts at a reboot, the ship hummed to life. Kri'shah_ _was at first startled, but regained composure as we prepared for takeoff. I set a course for Tamaran and off we went._

_Goodbye, Earth... Fare well._

_Tamaran was not as I had left it; in my years away from my homeworld it had changed, utterly. Smoke billowed from broken buildings, seeming to vent out of the very earth itself; houses were destroyed and my people were gone. All missing, or in hiding, it seemed._

_I walked along the deserted streets with Kri'shah, wondering where Komand'r was, where Galfore was, where my parents were._

_Perhaps they were at the castle. Yes, that would be the best place to be for such an activity._

_The hallways were voids, tunnels of empty silence. My feet made no sound on the red carpet, and I slowly made my way to the throne room. Perhaps Komand'r was there, perhaps Galfore was there, and I should be able to get this over with, to be reunited with them, for one last time. To be reunited with X'hal._

_I pushed open the door. "Komand'r, my sister," I grinned, putting on a leer like a drunken fool, stumbling forward, ready to fling myself into her embrace, but she pushed me aside, as I knew she would. I staggered back a good distance, almost falling to make the act seem complete._

_"The tribute is here," she sneered, her eyes flashing. "Take her!"_

_They dragged me all the way to the ship. I hung limply between their iron claws, determined to go quietly. In peace. It scared me, how hopeless I had become. He had broken my heart. And without heart, I was without life. Without spirit. He had done, unwittingly, what no other had been able to do._

He_ had killed me._

_I had begged, pitiful, for Kri'shah to be allowed to accompany me, and my captors had grudgingly agreed. To them, she was just another who would fall victim sooner or later to the Citadel's suffocating chokehold._

_They flew me back to the Citadel, and I marvelled almost at the _sameness_ of the place. It had not changed a bit during my absence. They put the familiar shackles that burned, yet sent a chilling sensation that flooded my body with the bitter cold of the Citadel. It wasn't just that, though. It was the people. My fellow prisoners, all aged with the passing of time. Of those that I had once known, only a handful remained, and of those, only a few looked alive. The rest were close to death. My only wish was that it would be over quickly._

_They threw me in a cell with one of my former fellow captives, a Yogarthian woman named Khull'r. She looked up dully as I climbed from the floor, rubbing the spot where my shoulder had contacted the ground. Then her eyes flickered with the barest recognition._

"Koriand'r. It cannot be!"

_"It is," I replied._

_Then she dropped her head, stared at the floor, and began to weep._

_The next few hours were spent desperately trying to sleep, to regain what energy had been cast from me, but it was a hopeless task, for there was no sunlight in the enclosed space of my cell, and I could already feel the biting toll of the weight of my shackles. They were heavy now that I was _rutha.

_And then they came for me, dragging me along the hallways, the guarded, nervous, almost dead stares of the other prisoners just adding further weight to my binds._

_I was thrown onto the floor in a cold room with nothing but a crude sleep pod in it, and lay there for a moment or two, shivering, not from the cold, but from the sudden absolute sadness and hopelessness that struck me. This is where it all begun._

_This would be where it all ended._

_He came in, the same ruthless leer designed solely for the purpose of aggravating me plastered to his slimy, scaly face. It wasn't going to do anything, though. The last time he had seen me, I still had the fighting spirit. This time, I was broken. An easy once-upon-a-time fairytale princess in those brightly coloured books that I had seen._

_He sneered in my face. "Again, Princess? Again? I am rather disappointed..." He moved towards me, and from where I was I could already see his cruel intent. He stared at me like I was a piece of meat and he a hungry dog, and I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling his disgusting hands slime me everywhere. Nothing. It was _nothing_ compared to _his_ gentle touch, smooth caress._

_..._

"Love me, Kory..."

"I promise. I will."

...

_I sat numbly and watched while he rent me apart, forcing cracks down my middle where the pain burst through in flashes of light. He was not a creature known for his genteel manner, and greed blazed in his eyes as he disrobed, ravaging me, stabbing me again and again and again. Grunting like an animal. Panting, sweaty. Smelling of leathery reptile and the scents of intimacy. I could see my own reflection in those beady, dark pupils. A vision of disorder. Pity._

X'hal... Just let this be over quickly.

_When I woke up in my cell again, I was sore, torn apart. A huge chunk of me felt as though it had been ripped out. I felt hollow inside. Kri'shah was nosing my hand. I petted her weakly. _

_"You are not happy. What is the matter?"_

_I didn't answer._

_"Princess, please!"_

_I told her everything, keeping my voice level. When I had finished, she turned to me, all seriousness in her eyes, and said only this._

_"Princess, you must live. You are the symbol of hope to your homeworld. You cannot sit here as a hostage. You must show them hope, and you must return to your homeworld and lead your people to fend off the attackers of your home. You must escape, and I will do anything to aid in your endeavour!"_

_I stroked her fur. "Many thanks. I shall think about this."_

_Inside though, I was burning. She was right. Komand'r had not made a wise choice, and neither had I been the best of people to agree to this temporary, foolish solution. Unless I was there to spur my people on, my homeworld would continue to be enslaved, and then death would be a selfish thing._

_When I next saw him in the cell, he did not make it out alive._

"I am not proud that I killed him," I said, looking down, "But glad that I did, for I would not be here otherwise." I looked back up, and continued.

_I collected Kri'shah, and we made it through the corridors of the ship, threaded carefully between the maze of passageways, until I reached the hangar._

_From there, it was easy to fly back to Tamaran, and take my own ship to Earth._

_However, by that time I was drained, and managed only to land my ship rather haphazardly, and stumbling into the sun that I collapsed._

"I should think that I am lucky to be alive." I could see the almost childish awe on his face as he listened.

_And when I awoke, I made myself forget everything. The pain, the hardship... It was easier that way. To start anew. And should I decide the time is right to remember, I will seek him out, and open the floodgates. His voice will set me free. I shall show no remorse then._

And I would have carried on like this," I murmured, "If not for you. You made me remember most of what I chose to forget, and you remind me of him - tell me, what is his name again?"

"Dick. Dick Grayson."

I shook my head, for I knew this was not it.

"His full name."

"Richard... John Grayson."

And then it flooded back, came to me in waves, torrents of memory that I had to steel myself to keep from falling over. The love. The betrayal. The longing. it was all mine again. And I was thankful to Jason for that, at least.

_"Richard John Grayson, do you take Koriand'r, Second Princess of Tamaran, as your lawfully wedded wife?"_

_I would be waiting._

_Waiting for the day that he would finally, finally say 'yes'._


	9. Chapter 9: Jason

**Jason**

I had listened to her story, but my mind was racing. So she was the girl that Dick had refused to talk about.

"Your turn," she smiled, nudging me. So I began.

"...My dad was a jackass."

_Yeah. A guy who cared for my mom about as much as he cared for me. A guy who taught me the ropes of his world. A guy who died like a dog, in prison, leaving me to care for both myself, and my mom. And when my mom died that night, overdosed on drugs, I was lost in this world. So I did what I had to do._

_The cops couldn't catch me, but that guy wasn't a cop. He beat me up, and I would've been dead if not for Leslie Thompkins. At her free clinic, she was like a second mother to me, the one that Catherine couldn't be._

_And, shame to say, I didn't do her much good in return. The prescription drugs, they were just there on that shelf. And they brought me straight to _him_._

_I might be all nonchalant-y when I tell you this, but here's the truth - I think I seriously shitted myself._

_Hey, I was a battle hardened teen who'd made good fighting in the back alleys of Gotham, and I still didn't stand a _breathing_ chance against the Bat. But Leslie... Well, let's just say Leslie did more for me than I did for her._

_I don't know what she had over him, and I still don't know what she said, but I was torn out of the streets and inserted into the fancy Wayne family. There was already someone else - Dick, there, and he was like a brother to me. We got along quite well. But it wasn't long before Dick had to go off to 'college'. I missed him, but Bruce decided, one night, to take the liberty to explain to me what was actually happening._

_"...Alfred, are you... um... seeing all of this?" I sure hoped I wasn't._

_Yeah, I know. But I had to make sure I wasn't going mad. Like, the Batcave. Right in front of me. And Bruce..._ Batman?

_Turns out, it was real._

_All of it._

_..._

_I loved crimefighting as Robin - a cool way of making sure people got what was coming to them, and I loved the mystery that shrouded all of this stuff. This alter ego business - and the fact that there was nothing to stop me from grinding fists into their face._

_But there was something that stopped all of it - altogether._

_"Monitor duty, Robin."_

_And everyone knows that's just one step from getting 'fired'. Okay, maybe I had gone too far last night, but he deserved it. And I didn't kill him._

_"You put him in intensive care for at least 3 weeks with a major concussion and 35 broken bones, and a compound fracture."_

_Wow. I didn't even know people had that many bones to break._

_"Will he..."_

_"Yes."_

Thank god.

_"...But he'll never walk again."_

_..._

_So, there I was, drooping in front of the monitor, trying not to fall asleep, when suddenly, a file of unknown origins flashed up._

_I should have ignored it. Maybe even beeped Batman the moment it came through. But I didn't._

_Instead, I took a plane to the Middle East, to meet my mother._

_The file had been a photo of her._

_Still alive._

_I should have known that whomever sent that wasn't gonna give me that info for free._

_If only I'd known the price I would pay._

Whack.

Thwack.

_"Aggghh..."_

Smash.

Thunk.

_"Uhhh..."_

_Lord knows I didn't make it easy for him. But he came._

_Just in time to see me go up in flames._

_..._

_I remember feeling sad. Remorseful, perhaps, that I didn't get to say_ goodbye.

Thank you.

_Or_ I'm sorry.

_..._

_I don't remember much from there._

_Everything's... jumbled._

_All I know is that before this... Before all this, I was Jason Todd._

_Now..._

_I'm the Red Hood._

_..._

"...And then you rescued me. Are you _mad_?"

"That would be foolish. On Tamaran, we appreciate the past. We respect it. But we don't live there. We live here. Now. In the moment."

I thought for a while. "Funny. Sounds like something Batman once said to me. It was some sort of Buddhist philosophy, I think."

I put my fingers to my chin, contemplating. Then I remembered.

"Hon inn myo - this day forward."

She hugged me, wordlessly, and we comforted each other in that soft embrace, not just of the body, but of the heart and the soul, the mind.

_We don't choose our teachers in life._

_Sometimes, they are crazed vigilantes pretending to love us like a son... and other times, they take the form of a space kitty who is smarter than anyone gives her credit for._

_Reminds me of _me.

_And again, maybe living's not just about trying to stay alive, like I am - but also making sense of this cruel world, and just thinking about living from hon inn myo - this day forward._

-End-

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Thanks for reading ^^ hope you enjoyed reading this as much I enjoyed writing it:)

StarCat out.


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